It is currently an enormous challenge for global enterprises to manage their vast stores of digital information. Storage capacity currently grows at annual rates of 30-70% in many enterprises, so the task of scaling storage capacity is a significant challenge.
Recently, certain technologies have been developed to reduce the complexity of scaling capacity. An example of such a technology is embodied in Acopia Network's Adaptive Resource Networking Switch.
Since scaling of storage capacity is starting to be addressed, increasing attention has been focused on raising the intelligence of storage management to achieve objectives beyond scaling. Often, the easiest way to add intelligence to a storage system is use of independent applications that layer above the storage infrastructure. For example, conventional search engines can be used to index content stored in network file systems and provide an Enterprise Search capability that is similar to the search capability provided on the Internet.